NASA is about to explore Ultima Thule — the farthest object humanity has ever tried to visit. Here's what to expect from the 'mind-boggling' encounter 4 billion miles from Earth.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Steve Gribben

• NASA's New Horizons probe, which visited Pluto in 2015, is closing in on a mysterious object called Ultima Thule.
• New Horizons will fly past Ultima Thule, formally known as 2014 MU₆₉, on New Year's Day.
• Ultima Thule will be the most distant object humanity has ever visited (if the flyby goes as planned).
• The nuclear-powered spacecraft will take hundreds photos of the space rock.
• The flyby is "about 10,000 times" more challenging than visiting Pluto, the mission's leader said.

NASA scientists are about to make history by flying a probe past a mysterious, mountain-size rock beyond the orbit of Pluto.

The object is called Ultima Thule (pronounced "tool-ee"), and it's more than 4 billion miles from Earth. If the flyby goes as planned, this will be the most distant object humanity has ever tried to explore.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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